Joe Moorhead explains why Mississippi State RB Kylin Hill can continue to lead SEC in rushing

Dave Holcomb| 9 months ago

It’s only been two games, but Mississippi State junior running back Kylin Hill already has a substantial lead in the rushing yards category in the SEC.

Hill has rushed for 320 yards and two touchdowns. He’s reached those numbers with 41 attempts, giving him a 7.8 yards per carry average.

No other SEC running back is within 100 yards of Hill in the rushing category. Georgia’s D’Andre Swift is second in the conference with 214 rushing yards and actually has a higher yards per carry average than Hill, but he has almost half as many carries.

As most coaches would, Mississippi State’s Joe Moorhead said he wasn’t at all surprised by Hill leading the SEC in rushing early this season, but he also proclaimed that the junior could keep it going. Moorhead says Hill has “small back characteristics” in a “big back’s body,” which makes him elusive in the open field and yet durable as well.

Hill is just one of five SEC running backs with 200 rushing yards through two weeks. Swift is the only one of the five with a higher yards per carry average than Hill, but with Georgia featuring a three and sometimes four-headed monster in the backfield, Swift might not receive enough carries to edge Hill in rushing should the Mississippi State back keep this pace.

Here’s the rest of what Moorhead said in his press conference Wednesday:

On Isaiah Zuber helping Mississippi State versus Kansas State: We haven’t really asked him outside of personnel, maybe a guy he’s gone up against in practice, we haven’t asked him any questions about the scheme.

On Tommy Stevens’ status: I think it’s a day-by-day thing, he did some things yesterday… we have treatment throughout the day, we have a meeting coming up, then we will see what he can do on the practice field.

On his backup QB spot: At this point, Garrett, KT and Mayden took reps in practice. Obviously, want to keep those cards close to the vest but all 3 of those guys are capable to running with our 1 offense.

On Chauncey Rivers recruiting Zuber: He was a HS teammate of him, but there wasn’t much he needed to say to us, we saw it last year… As soon as he entered the portal, we reached out to see if he would be interested in joining our program.

On the difference between Kansas State this year versus last season: I think you see a tough, disciplined team that doesn’t beat themselves. their coach has won 23 games in a row, has 7 national titles… I think people get caught up in FBS, FCS but some of the best coaches I’ve competed against are at FCS and he was one of the best at that level.